Australian shares set to tumble after Trump launches trade war

The news: The Australian sharemarket is poised to open sharply lower after US President Donald Trump signed executive orders placing tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, igniting a trade war.

The numbers: Updated at 7:25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: down 101 points or 1.19% at 8,406 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.75%, S&P 500 down 0.50%, Nasdaq down 0.28%
• Europe: FTSE 100 up 0.31%, CAC 40 up 0.11%, DAX up 0.02%
• Spot gold: up 0.14% to USD2,798.41 per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent down 0.29% to USD75.67/barrel, US WTI down 0.28% to USD72.53/bbl
• AUD: down 1.02% at 61.57 US cents
• Bitcoin: down 2.66% to USD98,058.99

The context: US stocks ended lower on Friday after the White House confirmed tariffs would be implemented from Saturday. Trump subsequently issued orders for sweeping tariffs of 25% on Canadian and Mexican imports and 10% on Chinese goods.

Mexico and Canada — the top US two trading partners — have vowed immediate retaliation and China has said it would take "counter measures". The risk of a global trade war could hurt US corporate profits and potentially upend US interest rate cut expectations, besides further weakening the Canadian dollar and China's yuan.